Crazy "Pyes"; Peanut Butter Cookies…and Oh Yeah, the Dentist

I’m currently on episode 6, season 2 of Orange is the New Black after it’s long overdue return, and I really am enjoying it so far. I was a little late to the game with season 1, but after my best friend kept prodding me to watch it, I gave in and to my surprise it actually captivated me; I ended up binge watching it all within a few days. So naturally when I heard that Netflix created an OITNB food truck to give away Crazy “Pyes” (“I threw my pie for you!”) and chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream, I was down for checking it out!

When I arrived there weren’t too many people there, but within no time the line grew immensely. I was under the impression that we would get both ice cream AND pie, but it was one or the other (bummer), so first go round, I got my raspberry pie. Nevertheless, because I’m stubborn and thought to myself, “I did not ride a bus all the way down here just for pie”, I jumped back in line before the hysteria and grabbed a cone within 10 minutes, woot!

“I threw my pie for you!”

My Crazy “Pye”

There was a lady there protesting not only the event, but the entire show. She was asking whether Crazy “Pyes” brought awareness to the fact that Litchfield Prison (the fictional prison where the show takes place) is based off of an actual place where women are still incarcerated till this day. While OITNB often displays what may seem to be a lighter side of life in prison, I also think that it brings awareness to a lot of other aspects that people may not have realized before. It humanizes these women, instead of just giving them the label of “criminal,” and also shows the horrible conditions one must deal with once locked away. To me, the food truck is just a clever marketing ploy, and by the number of people lining up to get their food, it seems to have worked. If you’re at all interested in checking it out for yourself, here are the next food truck locations:

West side of Central Park near Columbus Circle: Sunday, June 15, 1-5 p.m.

Today is also National Peanut Butter Cookie Day (what the what? You didn’t know that?!!) And I’ve decided that it was of course the perfect opportunity to bake and, yes, stuff my face with as many of these yummy little pieces of heaven as possible. Although they’re heavenly, they’re also pretty sinful as well; I’m usually astounded by the amount of sugar and butter that goes into these tempting little confections. Even though I didn’t alter any of the ingredients this time, my hope is to find healthier, more nutritious options for the future. I used the Classic Peanut Butter Cookies recipe from allrecipes.com and cut everything in half because I didn’t want to make two dozen. They came out drier than I’d like (any suggestions?), but were yummy nonetheless:

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

Preparation

Cream together butter, peanut butter and sugars. Beat in egg.

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir into batter. Put batter in refrigerator for 1 hour.

Roll into 1 inch balls and put on baking sheets. Flatten each ball with a fork, making a criss-cross pattern. Bake in a preheated 375 degrees F oven for about 10 minutes or until cookies begin to brown. Do not over-bake.

I also had an appointment with my dentist today (no cavities, yay!) Do you think he would approve of all of the sugar I’ve consumed? Doubtful…